-over 4,000 candidates did not submit despite deadline extension

DESPITE having a two-week extension to submit School Based Assessments (SBAs), over 4,000 candidates did not make any submissions this year.

This was on disclosed on Monday by the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC)’s Director of Operations Dr Nicole Manning, during a ceremony held in Saint Lucia for the official release of the 2022 results.

Dr Manning said that 5.02 per cent of candidate entries were not submitted to teachers this year.

“We saw where even though we would have [sic] given the extended deadline in relation to the submission of SBAs, in some cases we still had non-submission of SBAs. We are not happy about this …. it’s something that we are encouraging our territories to do a deeper look into, so that we can see improvement,” she added.

School Based Assessments or SBAs have been a part of the CXC examinations assessment structure since its first set of examinations in 1979. These assessments account for 40 per cent of a student’s final grade and apply to both the Caribbean Secondary Certificate (CSEC) examinations and the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE). If these are not submitted, a candidate will have an ungraded mark despite sitting the examinations.

Dr Manning explained that while there was a high rate of SBA submissions, there is still cause for concern.

“We saw where 4,838 candidates did not submit the SBA to the teachers at all, so that means it did not reach the CXC… and that represents a 5.02 per cent …it is a cause for concern because it is far more than we would have [sic] seen in the previous years,” the CXC official said.

She noted that interventions will continue during the new academic year and will see work being done with the various education systems to ensure that improvement is made in this particular area.

“So, we’d like to encourage teachers and candidates, parents across the region as we look forward to the new academic year…let us work together and of course it is the Caribbean Examinations Council’s intention to be meeting with various stakeholder groups, especially over the September/October to November period,” she added.

In April of this year, CXC had announced that it was shifting the dates for both CSEC and CAPE due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Initially, students were given six weeks to submit their SBAs, but that was extended by two weeks with some latitude by local registrars in individual territories. The original SBAs submission deadline was June 30, 2022.

Meanwhile, the council has recorded overall good passes this year for CAPE. According to the data that was released, 98 per cent of the candidates who wrote Physics Unit 2 achieved an acceptable grade, while 92 per cent of those who wrote Physics Unit 1, achieved an acceptable grade.

Further, 93 per cent of the candidates who wrote Law Unit 1; 90 per cent of those who wrote Food and Nutrition Unit 1; 96 per cent of candidates who wrote Information Technology Unit 2; 91 per cent of those who wrote Information Technology Unit 1; 11 per cent of candidates who wrote Caribbean Studies and 92 per cent of those who wrote Communication Studies, achieved acceptable grades.

With regard to CSEC, 71 per cent of English A candidates, 37 per cent of Mathematics candidates, 72 per cent of English B candidates, 59 per cent of Chemistry candidates, 78 per cent of Biology candidates and 64 per cent of Physics candidates, achieved an acceptable grade.

Additionally, 67 per cent of candidates who wrote Integrated Science; 69 per cent of candidates who wrote Principles of Accounts (PoA); 80 per cent of candidates who wrote Principles of Business (POB); 61 per cent of candidates who wrote Geography; 61 per cent of candidates who wrote French and 66 per cent of candidates who wrote Human and Social Biology (HSB), achieved an acceptable grade.

Despite the many challenges faced this year, Dr Manning said the council was able to facilitate the smooth running of examinations and reduce the changes of candidates being disadvantaged.